Snake Invades One-Room Schoolhouse

Bull snake tried entering one-room schoolhouse through air register.

CAPPER’s Staff

| Good Old Days

I was a 19-year-old green-horn, who didn't even know much about the state of Iowa. One day while was teaching class in a one-room schoolhouse (I had seven pupils in seven different grades), and a little boy shouted, "Miss Cloud! Look behind you!"

Much to my horror, I turned to see a huge bull snake trying to come up through the cold air register. It was waving around in the air almost as high as me. It was stuck and couldn't get through, its middle was too thick. The boys pulled up the register, and took it, with the snake, outside where they removed the snake and measured it. Six feet long! Everyone told me that they usually came in pairs and where there was one the other one would be around looking for its mate. I had nightmares for several nights, and was afraid to put my feet under the teacher's desk, or go into the cloakroom for days, but we didn't see any more snakes.

Alice R. Mason Toledo, Iowa

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